STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED IN ETHIOPIA AMID ONGOING PROTESTS
Ethiopia has declared state
of emergency amid anti-government protests that saw hundreds killed and several
thousand detained during the past two years.
Ethiopian officials
have declared a state of emergency amid widespread anti-government protests
that have persisted for more than two years and in which hundreds have been
killed and several thousand detained, the majority of whom have since been
released.
It is the second
state of emergency in two years and comes a day after the prime minister
resigned.
"The current
situation in the country has come to a point where it can't be handled with
normal peace protecting mechanisms," said a statement issued by the
Council of Ministers and read on the state broadcaster, the Ethiopian Broadcasting
Corporation, Friday evening.
"It has been
decided that a state of emergency is needed to protect the constitutional order
of the country. The state of emergency is effective as of today."
The Council of
Ministers' said the emergency is being declared because the protests have
caused injuries and deaths, massive displacement of citizens, the destruction
of properties, attacks based on ethnic lines and threats against the
constitutional order of the country.
It did not state how
long the state of emergency will be in effect.
On Thursday, Prime
Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced his surprise resignation, saying he
wanted to be part of a solution to the crisis and steadfast ongoing reforms.
He had been prime
minister since 2012.
My statement. #Ethiopia pic.twitter.com/vfBUxubeAw— Hailemariam Desalegn (@PrimeMinisterHD) February 15, 2018
This week Ethiopia
has been rocked by crippling protests in towns across the restive Oromia region
in which demonstrators called for the release of political prisoners and urged
the government to carry out quick reforms.
Ethiopia declared an
earlier state of emergency in October, 2016, following a week of
anti-government violence that resulted in deaths and property damage across the
country, especially in the Oromia region, the largest of the country's federal
states.
Earlier that month,
a stampede at a religious event southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, claimed
the lives of several dozen people.
During the state of
emergency of 2016 and 2017 more than 22,000 people were arrested and the unrest
seriously hurt one of the best performing economies in Africa.
It was lifted after
nine months.
Rights groups
claimed people were beaten and subjected to arbitrary detentions under the
previous emergency rule.
The government
maintained those arrested were by mistake, and people were released after what
it described as "training."
On Friday, the US
Embassy in Addis Ababa issued its fifth security alert for Ethiopia since
January.
The warning is for
its personnel to suspend all travels outside of the capital as a precautionary
measure.
SOURCE: AFP
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